Best Places In The World To Retire

There are plenty of islands in Belize; over one hundred islands. Generally speaking, in Belize, we call islands “cayes”, which is pronounced “keys”, like what you use to open a door in your car.
 
Some of the more well-known islands are Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker, Saint George’s Caye, Blackadore Caye, Goff Caye, and Sapodilla Caye (which is an island reserve). Then there are cayes that are yet to be developed like Chapel Caye, the one that is going...

There are plenty of islands in Belize; over one hundred islands. Generally speaking, in Belize, we call islands “cayes”, which is pronounced “keys”, like what you use to open a door in your car.
 
Some of the more well-known islands are Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker, Saint George’s Caye, Blackadore Caye, Goff Caye, and Sapodilla Caye (which is an island reserve). Then there are cayes that are yet to be developed like Chapel Caye, the one that is going to be developed by Leonardo DiCaprio. There’s going to be a golf course in that island.
 
There are other cayes that are resort islands like Hoffman Caye. We also have Huracan Diving, which is a diving resort about 3 hours away from Belize City by boat. Those cayes are really more out sea but there are villages and people living on them, and there are businesses there, too.  Next is Turneffe Atoll, which is a series of different cayes that have very nice scuba diving and snorkeling.
 
The islands in Belize differ from each other in many things like size, the type of sand, and some are inhabited and some are not. Blackbird Caye is surrounded by a lagoon. Other cayes do not have this feature, as the cayes of Belize are different. Some of the cayes are inside the reef and some of them are not. For example, Southern Long Caye is outside the reef.

 

(Autumn Erhard, Wheel of Fortune winner takes a trip to a private caye, courtesy of Black Orchid Resort,  Burrell Boom Village, Belize, pictured.)

• The people are friendly.
• The low cost of living. People can hire easily and get the help that they need.
• Good healthcare. There are lots of good quality hospitals in the city of Managua that are up to international standards. We have expats who use these hospitals. As an example, one expat in Ometepe Island broke his arm and there was no facility there to treat him. He had to be taken to the city of Managua, but there was no ferry out at night. He had to be taken on the first ferry out of Ometepe the following morning. He was already thinking of going back to the US, but after being treated by a very good English-speaking doctor in this modern hospital in Managua, he changed his mind. He said the medical attention given to him was superb, his arm was fixed, and a cast was put nicely on his arm.
• Weather. This is a big surprise to many people because in Managua, every morning when you wake up, you can drink your first coffee with the sunshine on the terrace and you are surrounded by nature. Nicaragua has the best intact nature of any country in Central America. 58% of the Nicaraguan nature capital is intact. All the trees, flowers, and the sun is a wonderful thing to see every day. The warmth of the sun also helps some movement problems and muscle problems that some people may have. The sun is also a great advantage to the coffee producer of Nicaragua because all the Nicaraguan coffee is sun-dried. They don’t use machines to dry the coffee beans. We have more sun hours in the year than in any other place in all of Central America.